Quark cream with raspberries and Coeurs de France

The other night I cooked dinner for four girlfriends of mine. To end the meal on a light note, I prepared a light creme based on quark (sour fresh white cheese) and served it together with raspberries. By adding some sugar and some whipped creme, it becomes a bit sweeter and more fluffy (you can add however much of each as you like). It takes 10 min to prepare and can be served right away.

I thought a biscuit or cookie would be nice with it and with coffee. I opted for "coeurs de France" which are super easy and quick to make. And delicious too! These biscuits are sometimes called elephant ears or palm hearts in France (coeurs de Palmier), but in Switzerland they're called coeurs de France. If you buy ready-made puff pastry dough (pâte feuilletée) it takes 10 min to prepare them and 15 more to bake.

The quark creme with raspberries and coeurs de France is a nice and light alternative to heavier creme-based desserts such as mascarpone or panna cotta, and also takes a lot less time to prepare (no cooking or refrigeration needed). Enjoy :-D

Quark cream with raspberries (4-6 portions)

500 g light quark (séré maigre)
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp sugar
1 dl creme (35% fat)

500 g fresh raspberries

(frozen raspberries work as well)

Whip up the quark together with lemon and sugar. Whip up the creme and carefully incorporate it into the quark mix.

In a cup/glass, put a layer of raspberries, cover them with cream, more raspberries, more cream, and top it all with a 3rd layer of raspberries. Decorate with some mint leaves and serve with coeurs de France (see below).


Coeurs de France (elephant ears, 30 pieces)

500 g puff pastry dough (block)
a lot of sugar

Roll out the dough, fold in both long sides, slice the dough and dip the hearts in sugar

 

Golden coeurs de France !

Roll out the dough on sugar into a 0.5 mm thick rectangle (that way the sugar goes into the dough). Sprinkle sugar on the dough surface. Roll in both long sides and cut 0.5 mm thick slices. Dip the slices in sugar (always more sugar) and place on parchment paper on an oven plate. Bake in the oven at 220C approx. 10-12 min until golden. Flip the coeurs de France halfway so both sides become golden. Let them cool down on a grid.

References: Croqu'Menus, www.saison.ch

Fresh blueberry mousse

Since Summer has (finally) made its way to Switzerland, I decided to try a new dessert based on fruits. Berries, such as strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, are great and refreshing fruits in the Summer. I opted for a blueberry mousse but you can easily replace blueberries with raspberries or even a mix of wild berries!

It's an easy recipe and takes about 20 min to prepare. Heat up and mix fruits and sugar. Beat up eggwhite and cream. Mix it all and refrigerate! That's it. I tried to make something light, with not too much cream, eggs or sugar. In the recipe below, you can add as much or as little sugar as you want, I recommend 2 tbsp for 200 g fruits. Same goes for the cream, if you want sth more creamy then add more cream (you can easily double the volume of cream). And if you want something more fluffy or airy add another eggwhite.

Recipe for blueberry mousse:

200 g blueberries (frozen or fresh) + some more
some sugar (2 tbsp)
2 sheets gelatin
1 dl cream + some more
1 eggwhite
mint leaves

Put blueberries in a saucepan with some sugar (add to taste). Heat it up slowly so the sugar melts. Mix or press the blueberries to get a purée. If you want to get rid of impurities or if you want a homogenous mix pass the purée through a strainer (I don't do it I prefer to keep everything).
Wet the gelatin sheets in cold water. Add the gelatin to the warm blueberry purée and mix.
Beat up the eggwhite and the cream (in separate bowls). Carefully fold in the eggwhite. Then the cream, as carefully.
Pour the mix in small cups and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

Serve the blueberry mousse (fresh) with some extra whipped cream and blueberries. Decorate with mint leaves. Enjoy !!!

Adapted from: http://lesfoliesdedidi.over-blog.com/article-verrines-72716708.html

Summery rhubarb crumble tart

Last weekend, I went to a potluck with the triathlon team (yes I do triathlon leisurely... also to compensate for all the baking and cooking I do :-p ) and there was a rhubarb tart. It was beautiful, and so good! Nice red rhubarb pieces covered with a crispy crumble, and a shortcrust that melted in your mouth. Mmmm! I tried for a week (along with my triathlon friends) to find who had made it to get the recipe, but I was left unsuccessful.

In the meanwhile, I had bought a lot of rhubarb thinking I would get the recipe. After a few days, I decided to go ahead and come up with my own recipe :-) and it turned out well! I opted for an almond shortcrust (pâte sablée in French) which I thought would soften the acid taste of the rhubarb. Many recipes I found online included a "liaison" or cream and egg mix to bind the rhubarb, but I'm not such a big fan of this so I decided to do without. Instead I decided to coat the crust with ground almonds to emphasize a bit the almond taste in the dough and to soak the rhubarb juice so it doesn't wet the crust too much. And I topped the rhubarb with a simple crumble to add some crispiness to it.

I served it the next day to two of my girlfriends with some vanilla ice-cream and it was super good (according to them of course... but I think so too hehe). It made for a very nice snack on a sunny Sunday afternoon! You should try it too, and if you don't like rhubarb so much, I'm sure it works as well with apples, apricots, and plums! Enjoy!!!


Recipe for the rhubarb crumble tart

Dough (shortcrust, or pâte sablée):

250 g flour
100 g ground almonds
1/2 tsp salt
125 g butter
3 tbsp sugar
1 beaten egg
2.5 tbsp water

In a bowl mix flour, ground almonds and salt. Add the butter, mix with your hands and make small crumbs. Add sugar, the beaten egg and water, mix fast and make the dough. Refrigerate at least 30 min (under cover).

Filling:

80-100 g ground almonds

Fruits:

1 kg peeled rhubarb, cut in small pieces (approx. 6 nice big sticks)
Add some sugar, set aside for a while so some juice comes out.

Crumble:

120 g flour
80 g butter
60 g sugar

Mix all ingredients together and make small crumbs. If it's too clumpy or sticky, add some more flour.

Making of the rhubarb crumble tart

Grease and flour a big tart form. Roll out the dough, prick it with a fork. Cover the dough with ground almonds (this can help soak the juice of the rhubarb when baking). Add the rhubarb, without extra juice. Sprinkle the crumble on top of the fruits. Bake in the oven approx. 35 min at 180-200 C. Serve lukewarm with some vanilla ice-cream.